Weightlifting Pioneer Murray Levin Dies Age 98

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of a true Weightlifting giant and great personal friend and mentor – Murray Levin.

Murray didn’t make his mark in the sport on the platform (although he had a long career as an athlete) but rather as a contributor of immense importance to the sport, both in the US and around the world.

In 2003, Levin carried out his last act in a leadership position in Weightlifting internationally when he retired as President of the Pan American Weightlifting Confederation of the IWF. His stint as president of the federation included presiding over the 2003 Pan American Games. He had served in that capacity or its equivalents for 20 years.

Levin began his career in weightlifting as a local competitor in the Metropolitan Association (New York City). He became active as a coach and official early on, organizing a local club on Long Island where he then lived.

His organizational skills soon became apparent. By 1964 he was elected Chairman of the Met Association (equivalent to the Weightlifting State Organization (WSO) president today). In that capacity, he worked to develop lifting in the local area, most notably by hosting an invitational meet in NY in December of 1967 that saw eight American records set in one day, and by hosting the then Junior National Championships in both 1969 and 1970. Levin also attained his Category I International Referee’s ranking in 1970 at the aforementioned Junior Nationals.

Soon thereafter, Levin became Region I Chairman and by 1975 he was elected National Chairman (equivalent of today’s USAW Chair of the Board of Directors).  It would be tempting to say that Levin then “served” for the next 13 years in that position, but the word “served” hardly describes what he did in that role.

Only months into his administration, he ran a Europe vs. America invitational where both American and world records were set—in those days, such records could be set at any sanctioned event that had the necessary level referees, National for American Record and International for World records, and a certified scale.

That was just the beginning of a string of invitational international events Levin organized, which included four “Record Makers Invitational” competitions (1977, 1978, 1982 and 1983), and the America’s Cup II and America’s Cup III (1981 and 1985). His meet promotion was far from limited to invitational events.

In 1978, after the original host country pulled out of the Senior World Championships, Levin ran the World Championships in Gettysburg,Pennsylvania. Because of short notice and limited funds, Levin negotiated with the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) for the right to compress 10 men’s bodyweight categories of lifting (there were no official women’s competitions at that time, national or international) into five days. This was done by having competition in two weight categories per day and essentially all-day competition.

Up until that time, the World’s Championships had always been conducted with one weight category per day. The format Levin pioneered soon became the IWF standard. His performance in 1978, including excellent support of the Pan American Championships, which were held in conjunction with the 1978 World’s, soon led to Levin’s being elected President of the Pan American Confederation (1979) and becoming a member of the IWF Executive Board in 1980. He held both of those positions through 1991. But the 1978 World Championships were also the foundation for another of Levin’s pioneering efforts.

Levin had always been interested in women’s weightlifting. Soon after becoming Chairman, he asked Mabel Rader, then the only female who was a national level referee in the federation, to head up a women’s committee to develop women’s weightlifting in the United States.

Then, while Levin was conducting the 1978 World Championships, he provided special training quarters for the Chinese team at their request. During that process, he got to know the Chinese coaches fairly well and when he inquired about women’s weightlifting in China, those coaches told him they had thousands of women training at that point in time.

That conversation convinced Murry he was on the right track in the US and that there was potential for international competition if a U.S. women’s program got under way. So, Levin began to further promote women’s weightlifting. Levin spoke with Rader, and it was agreed that a Women’s National Championships would represent a major step forward.

While there was considerable Board resistance to the idea of such a women’s lifting event, Levin was persistent in raising the issue of the need for a national event. Many Board members argued that the women “weren’t good enough yet” to merit such an event, but Levin brought the issue to a head in a December 1980 board meeting where he argued that Rader was ready to move ahead with a women’s nationals, and they needed to support her.

A motion was made to organize the first Women’s National Championships and the vote was 5-to-5. The Board consisted of 10 members at that time, and the president only voted to break a tie. After speaking eloquently and emotionally in favor of the competition, Levin voted to break the tie in favor of the motion.

As a result, on May 23, 1981, the first U.S. Women’s National Championships were held in Waterloo, Iowa, by Joe Widdel. After that, there was no looking back. Women’s Nationals were held every year thereafter, with ever growing strength, although always as separate events from the men’s.

In 1986, I began arguing at Board meetings that the Men’s and Women’s Championships should be combined. There was much dissent against such a concept, but Levin was very supportive of the idea and it was finally agreed that the 1988 National Championships would be the first experiment with holding a nationals for both men and women at the same time and place. That experiment was such a success that it turned into the standard approach, one which was adopted a few years later internationally for World Championships.

Levin and the United States began to lobby for a Women’s World Championships during the mid-1980’s, and by 1987 it was agreed that the U.S. would host the first such championships in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The IWF made it clear that the event was an experiment, with no commitment to conducting further championships of this kind, but the event was such a success, with such outstanding performances, that the Women’s World Championships became an annual event.

Levin continued to push for Women’s Weightlifting and its addition to the Olympic and Pan-American Games. Under Murray Levin’s leadership, plans were well under way for a women’s competition at the 1999 Pan American Games before the IOC agreed to include a women’s event at the 2000 Olympic Games. Women’s lifting has never had a better friend than Levin Levin.

Upon assuming the leadership of US Weightlifting in 1975, Levin faced another major issue. He found a treasury literally with $300 in it. He quickly undertook fund raising and cost control measures to strengthen the federation’s finances in the short term, but he also began to look for a sponsor to really give USAW the financial strength it needed to carry on its current programs and to develop new ones.

He was able to obtain continuing support from York Barbell, and he soon established a relationship with Mack Truck. Mack was to go on to sponsor the USAW for many years thereafter. The combined support of York Barbell and Mack over the next 20 years was to generate more than $1 million for USAW.

In 1984, Levin was to make perhaps his greatest contribution to the financial strength of USAW. When funds became available to the National Sports Governing Bodies after the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Levin immediately moved to set up a separate weightlifting foundation to manage what was the biggest cash infusion USAW was to ever receive. He then took two important steps to establish the security of those funds. He assured that the funds were invested conservatively, and he established a policy of only using half of the interest generated by the foundation for USAW operations. The rest would be reinvested to assure continual growth in the foundation’s assets.

Levin, longtime Secretary of the Foundation, fought market forces and internal efforts to deplete the foundation’s funds for nearly 20 years. The result was a growth in the principal of more than 100%, while at the same time, making total disbursements to USAW of more than $1 million.

Levin also played a major role in the advancement of athlete’s rights. When Murray Levin was elected Chairman of Weightlifting in the United States in 1975, I supported the opposition and was one of Levin’s most strident critics. He truly appreciated the criticism and challenged me to become the athlete’s representative to the Board of Governors (all of the athletes in the entire country had only one representative at that time).

I accepted Levin’s appointment and started to work on the notion of pre-announced, objective, selection standards for international teams almost immediately. Levin soon became supportive of this idea and by 1978 it was employed for the first time.

When USAW was mandated to create two athlete’s rep positions on the Board of Directors in 1978, Levin asked me to serve and to select another athlete, I agreed on the condition that he would support the election of such reps in the future.

It took some work with the Board, but by 1979, it was agreed that athlete’s representatives to the Board would be elected and the first election was held at the 1980 National Championships. When I began to push for parity for athletes in voting at the BOG level (one athlete vote for every official/administrator), Levin was again supportive, and by 1982, that was accomplished. It’s unlikely any of this would have occurred without Levin’s willingness to work with a major critic or his fundamental support for the notion of athlete involvement in their governance.

When a national movement to break up AAU dominance of amateur sport began in the 1970s, it led to the formal establishment of USAW. Levin ably guided this transition, first by obtaining a part-time National Office support for the new federation, and then by hiring our first full-time coach for the Olympic Training Center, Havery Newton, in 1980. By 1981, we had a separate National Office, with Harvey at the helm as Executive Director.

After leaving the Presidency of the USAW in 1988, Levin continued to serve as Pan American President and an IWF Executive Board Member through 1991.

He then decided it was time for a rest. In the ensuing 4 years, the Pan American Confederation was split into North and South American Confederations. Levin returned in 1995 to be elected president of the North American Confederation (NACACI) and to regain a seat on the IWF Executive Board. In 2000, the North and South American Confederations were combined once again by the IWF, and Levin assumed the overall presidency, the position from which he retired in 2003.

In an interview with Murray Levin in 2003, I posed the following questions to him, just before the Pan American Games:

What are your fondest memories of Weightlifting after these many years in the sport?

In one sense, it is my early years in NY. During those years, I worked under the guidance of Rudy Sablo and Morris Weissbrot. They were great mentors, always teaching me something and always urging me to take on more responsibility as I grew. John Terpak also developed that kind of relationship with me, even before I moved to Gettysburg in 1973 and he, Morris and Rudy helped me to develop my skills on the National and International levels.

In another sense, I also remember some of the battles we had on the Board at the National level. They were often bitter and contentious, but they led to some real breakthroughs for the USAW in terms of the women’s program, keeping the Federation financially strong and advancing athlete’s rights.

Among your many accomplishments and contributions to weightlifting, which ones stand out most in your mind?

I would have to say that I am proudest of the women’s program most, overall. We went from no organized program in the U.S. to being world leaders in women’s weightlifting, to seeing women finally included in the Olympic Games. I’m proud of the women like Mabel Rader and Judy Glenney who pioneered women’s lifting in the U.S., and I’m very proud of the wonderful group of women we have representing the U.S. today—as athletes, and, I might add, as officials. As President of the Pan American Confederation, I’m working to assure that at this year’s Pan American Games, 25% of the referees will be women, and a woman will serve as president of one the juries for the first time in any major international event. On the international scene, that is radical but overdue.

What are your hopes for the future of U.S. weightlifting and weightlifting in general?

I hope that the US and the rest of the world will focus on the development of young lifters. I have always been a strong supporter of masters weightlifting, helping to organize the first World Masters, but our youth is our future and we must never forget the importance of grass roots programs that get young people into our sport. I also hope that weightlifting will more fully recognize the importance of audience and media appeal at competitions. Getting both of these groups behind us will help the development of our sport in many ways.

What will you do with all of your newly found free time after you retire?

I’ll travel a lot less and spend more time with my family. I plan to undertake more serious training on my own, with hopes of enjoying masters competition more fully. I’ll continue to work with the foundation to assure the financial strength of USAW, and will serve as President Emeritus of the Pan American Confederation. Of course, I’ll always be available to USAW to support its programs in any way I can, as I have tried to do over these past 40 plus years.

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The length, breadth and impact of Murray’s contributions are unmatched in USA Weightlifting history. I’m truly grateful to have known him and to have benefited from his wisdom and support throughout my career, whether as an athlete, official or governance leader. I was extremely fortunate to have had him as a mentor and supporter, and the sport of weightlifting was immeasurably enriched by his many contributions.

Farewell my friend. May your work in, and love of, weightlifting be forever remembered!